Switched
by caaaitlin
Summary: A punishment from Dumbledore leads two the two most well known enemies of Hogwarts into switching bodies, could this possibly open their eyes to everything they've gotten wrong about one another? The grass is always greener...
1. Fighting changes people

Hey, this is just an idea I had, I know lots have people have done the switching body thing, but I really wanted to try something where Draco and Harry could gain a proper understanding of each other. Don't worry, I'm definitely not abandoning my other fic, and I promise to still update that one just as speedily, I just wanted to put this out there to see what people think of it, so review and tell me whether or not it's worth continuing with. Thanks!

Chapter one: Fighting changes people.

Harry Potter's 5th year at Hogwarts of Witchcraft and wizardry was most definitely not off to a good start. After a horrible summer filled with cryptic letters from his friends, a dementor attack, hours of cleaning a dusty house and time spent with a godfather who had more mood swings then an insane pregnant woman, who had jumped from absolutely elated to sullen and depressed as the begging of the school year had approached, Harry had hoped that returning back to the school he had called his home for the past four years might distract him from his troubles slightly, but sadly it had just increased them to epic proportions, firstly with all the _rumours_, which he really should have anticipated, but when one is distracted by wayward godfathers, terrifying dreams of an even more terrifying Dark Lord and the return of said Dark Lord, well, these things just tend to slip one's mind, and then there was the completely insufferable and ridiculous pink wearing Umbridge woman, who happily encouraged the students to spread rumours of Harry being a dangerous psychopathic attention seeking nuisance, while refusing to let them use a wand in class, because, hey, who really needed one when you have a nice book to defend yourself, right?

Harry sighed angrily as he turned a corner, thinking life just couldn't get much worse.

"Ah well, if it isn't pathetic Potter," Drawled the person who was number two on his most hated list. He was tying with Snape, you see. And Umbridge as well, actually, now Harry thought on it. "Walking around without your pet weasel and mudblood slave? Or did they abandon you to go snog in a closet and discuss how psychotic you are?"

"Don't you dare call Hermione that, you sick little ferret." Harry snapped back, surprisingly quite in the mood to release some angst on that pasty faced coward he was currently being forced to look at. "How about you huh? I mean I know you don't have friends but where are those people your father pays to follow you around?"

"Don't you talk about my father Potter." Malfoy replied angrily, pale cheeks colouring a light pink. "Just because yours isn't around doesn't mean you have to be spiteful. I mean even if he wasn't around he wouldn't be much use to you anyway since he was stupid enough to marry a mudblood!"

At these words Harry let out a growl of frustration, whipping out his wand he yelled, "furnurculus!" but sadly Malfoy had anticipated his attack and easily deflected the curse,

"Incarcerous!" He yelled in retaliation.

"Protego!" Harry said shielding himself while mentally thanking Hermione for all the spells she had taught him in preparation for the third task in the previous year.

Harry and Draco had been duelling for several minutes, both looking slightly worse for wear (Draco was now pink and covered in rainbow coloured boils from head to toe, while Harry now had floor length hair and feet that were at least five time larger than normal) when Albus Dumbledore appeared at the end of the corridor after his regular night time stroll to get himself a cup of hot chocolate and have a pleasant chat with Dobby the house elf, he watched the two students duel for a moment with a frown on his face before clearing his throat, Umbridge style, to get their attention, both froze in horror when they saw their headmaster standing before him. Albus realised they must not have even noticed they were duelling right outside his office as they were so caught up in their battle.

"Potter cursed me first Sir!" Draco cried.

"He insulted my parents Professor!" Harry defended himself.

Dumbledore heaved a sigh of disappointment and surveyed the young wizards in front of him, with a casual flick of his wand; all evidence of their fight was gone, except for the guilty expressions of course.

"Follow me please." Dumbledore commanded, a grim expression on his face, leading them into his office.

Shame filled Harry at the sight of his favourite Professor's disappointed face and panic ate at his stomach, was he going to be expelled now? This was the second time this year he was having these thoughts and it was already beginning to feel tedious.

Meanwhile, Draco was trying to keep a cool head and failing miserably as thoughts of what his father would say over his expulsion, caused by a petty fight with Potter no less! No father would not be pleased, he thought miserably as the ugly gargoyle opened to revel the staircase to the Headmasters office, not pleased at all.

Dumbledore lead the young men over to his desk, sitting opposite them, observing the way they shuffled their chairs so there was as much distance between them as possible.

"Sherbet lemon?" he offered.

Both boys mumbled, "No thank you." Harry with a resigned look and Draco with a confused one.

Dumbledore leant forward on his desk, placing his fingers under his chin in thought, simply looking at the two boys in front of him. Harry was shifting uncomfortably in his chair, eyes trained on the floor while Draco was sitting ramrod straight, his gaze shifting around the room to look at the numerous amounts of strange objects the headmaster kept in his office.

"I am hugely disappointed in you both." Dumbledore stated gravely, letting his words ring in the tense silence for a moment before continuing. "Not just for the fight you have had today, but for going along with the ridiculous prejudices that have been fed to you by others. I had hoped that, perhaps, in light of what occurred at the end of last year, that this school may finally come together. My hopes were obviously not achieved from the example you two are setting."

Draco fought off the urge to snort at this. Typical old stupid Dumbledore, blah blah blah house unity, blah blah blah mudbloods are the same as the rest of us.

"Are we being expelled Professor?" Harry asked quietly, still unable to meet his Professor's eye. Draco glanced at Dumbledore, trying to read his expression.

"No. But I will be owling your guardians," Draco couldn't help but cringe at this, which Dumbledore pretended not to notice. "and there will be a punishment, beginning right now."

"Right now?" Harry asked, confusion colouring his tone.

"Yes," Dumbledore replied a hint of excitement creeping into his voice. Bad, thought Draco, very bad. "You see, I believe the reason for all this angst between the two of you is caused by a lack of understanding for the others emotions and life situation. You need too, walk a mile in each other's shoes, so to speak."

"You want us to trade shoes?" Asked Draco, confused and mildly repulsed.

Dumbledore chuckled at this, "No, not at all Mr Malfoy. It seems you were unfamiliar with the muggle saying. There is a spell," Dumbledore informed them, "that I believe will help you gain some respect and compassion for one another."

The boys had twin looks of disgust on their faces mere thought of it.

"Er, what sort of spell Professor?" Harry asked nervously.

"A body switching spell." Dumbledore replied. Ignoring the boys splutters of protest the Headmaster merely raised his hand for silence and said, "This will be on you for the duration of three weeks, you will not tell any of your friend, nor will any other Professors know of the situation, you will meet together for an hour a day to discuss any queries you have doe another, and you will act as your counterpart would until your punishment is completed. Then you may act however you choose."

"No way!—"

"But sir!—"

"He's a—"

"I can't—"

"This is not up for discussion." Dumbledore said, finality in his tone.

"My father will hear about this!" Draco threatened, earning himself a groan of annoyance from Harry.

"If he does Mr Malfoy, he will be informed that not going through with this punishment will result in expulsion." Dumbledore retorted mildly.

Realising there was nothing they could do, and after a brief scowl in the others direction, they nodded in defeat.

"Excellent! Now if you'd both stand please." Dumbledore ordered, rising from his chair and pulling out his wand. "Now this spell will switch your souls around, this is what makes it different then the polyjuice potion which merely imitates a person for a short amount of time, this spell will truly make the body yours. You should know it's worked when you're suddenly standing in another part of the room."

The two students gulped audibly.

"Sciadara." Dumbledore said in a clear voice, making a complicated twist with his wand.

It was the oddest sensation either of them had ever experienced, like having air escape at top speed from every pore on your body, Harry related it somewhat to a car tire deflating, and then suddenly, just as all the air had escaped, every pore was now sucking in at top speed and all of a sudden, they were standing in another part of the room.

"That was… weird…" Harry murmured, examining his new much paler, and slightly larger hands.

"Really weird…" Agreed Draco, without realising he was doing so, (though Dumbledore smiled triumphantly) now feeling the glasses that had appeared on his face, his fingers moving towards the scar on his forehead with slight excitement.

"Well I did a stunning job if I do say so myself," Dumbledore said happily. "You should probably go exchange common room locations and passwords and the like. Good evening."

Harry and Draco left the office, matching looks of bewilderment on their faces. Harry turned left outside the gargoyle, heading for the dungeons hiss eagerness to be free of Malfoy momentarily making him forget that he shouldn't know the way to his new common room already.

"Potter!" Draco snapped suspiciously, while feeling slightly odd at addressing his own body as such. "How do you know where to go?"

"Oh, er, lucky guess." Harry said, cursing his own stupidity. "If you go to the library Hermione and Ron should be there, they'll get you to the common room."

"No way am I going to meet them!" Draco said indignantly.

"We have to act like each other remember?" Harry said with an eye roll. "And I promised I'd meet them. What's your password?"

"Cucuio. Pansy's probably waiting for you in the common room."

"You're not dating her are you?" Harry asked wearily.

"No! You better not be dating Granger!"

"Of course I'm not. Don't you dare do anything to hurt her Malfoy, or Ron for that matter."

Draco merely rolled his eyes, turned on his heel, and stalked off to the library—leaving a very angry harry in his wake.


	2. Crying house elves & Furry tables

**Hi. Thank you for reviewing! About the Slytherin password, Cucuio while it is, admittedly close to crucio, I chose that because it's actually a creature that brings light to people in the dark, which I thought was a little poetic since Harry was going into Slytherin ;)**

"Harry!" Granger greeted him, beaming. How odd. He didn't think she had ever smiled at him before.

"Hey mate." Weasly said, with a good natured thump on his back, Draco valiantly fought the urge to shudder, instead forcing his face muscles into a smile, "What took you so long?"

"We were beginning to get worried." Granger informed him, concern softening her eyes for a moment before they turned amused, "Or at least, I was. Ron was just complaining about "too much studying time and not enough sneaking off to the kitchen time"."

He faked a chuckle at Weasly's oafishness before saying, "Got caught fighting with, er, Malfoy by Dumbledore."

"Harry!" Granger chastised bossily. Ah there was the know-it-all he recognised. "You really shouldn't go fighting with him this year; Umbridge is just looking for any reason to get you in trouble. I really think you need to be careful." She finished, placing a small warm hand on top of his. Wait, what? Why was Grangers hand all… soft and smooth. Did he have butterflies in his stomach? No! No. Malfoy's do not get butterflies, he told himself, he must have indigestion or something, trust Potter's body to be faulty.

Swiftly removing his hand, he mumbled a highly intelligent reply of, "Uh, yeah, right."

Ron stood up from his chair and announced decisively, "Enough studying! To the kitchens!

Hermione rolled her eyes and laughed lightly at her friend's antics.

"Alright, alright." She said holding her hands up in mock defeat while flashing Draco another brilliant smile. Once she had cleared her books away she said to him, "Come on Harry, we can go see Dobby and Winky."

"Yeah…" Draco murmured, wondering what the heck those were.

…

Harry made his way to the into the Slytherin common room without worry and was aiming for the boys dormitory, in hope that no one would notice him on the way, when he suddenly crashed into a petite black haired girl.

"Oh I'm sorry." He said without thinking, helping the girl up.

"Merlin, Draco, someone's polite today." She said with one delicately eyebrow raised to indicate her confusion. Pansy Parkinson Harry realised. Well damn, there goes the plan of not being noticed.

"Um, yeah, good day today. Really put Potter in his place." He lied.

"Oh of course," She said sounding placated. "Nothing better than putting Pathetic Potter down."

Harry was surprised at her rather bitter tone, but decided not to question it.

"Well I'm really quite tired Pansy," He said, giving a fake yawn for emphasis. "I think I'll just head on up to bed…"

"What?" She said, confused, "But you said you would help me with my transfiguration essay! Please Draco, you know how useless I am."

"Oh." Harry said lamely, attempting to hold in his surprise at Pansy Parkinson ask _him _of all people to help. "Well yeah, sure then… What do you need to know?"

"You're a life saver," She said grinning at him, "I'll just run and grab my books."

"Right then."

…

"And that's why Snape's a greasy haired bat." Ron concluded seriously.

Draco was surprised to find himself laughing along with Granger at the Weasel's tale, he could believe _Weasly_ had said something that was actually funny. Let alone something funny about Snape, who for the most part was Draco's favourite teacher, though even he had to agree with the greasy haired bit.

They were currently in the kitchens, a part of the castle Draco was pleased to discover, and were waiting on the house elves (much to Hermione's distress, and Draco's pleasure) to bring them some food.

"You idiot Ron, why didn't you just put some pine needles in?" Hermione asked mirth in her tone.

"Yeah, you would've saved yourself a lot of trouble." Draco agreed.

"What are you talking about Harry?" Ron asked, sounding baffled. "You did the same thing remember?"

"Oh right." He said causing Granger and Weasly to begin laughing at _him_. How embarrassing. Stupid Potter, why did he have to be so useless at potions?

"Oh Harry," Granger said, sounding sorry for him. "Don't look so ashamed. Even I mess up in his class with him glaring at us all the time, he's really quite scary."

"Merlin Hermione!" Ron said sounding incredulous, "Did you just admit to having trouble in a _class_?"

At this Ron and Draco finally got a turn at laugh at Hermione's expense, while she glared at them.

"Oh shut up!" She said sounding put out. "I was trying to be supportive Harry and you laugh at me? Such a good friend!"

Draco had the grace to look ashamed, and murmured, "Sorry." Feeling aggravated that he had to apoligise to a _mudblood_.

"I has your food, sirs and miss!" Said Dobby excitedly.

"Oh Dobby." Ron sighed happily, gazing at the large plates of cakes. "You know I love you right?"

Tears gathered in Dobby's eyes. "You is much to kind sir!" He cried, before running away bawling.

"Elves are weird creatures." Ron commented, before launching in on the cakes.

…

"…and that's the table would still have fur." Concluded Harry. "You get it now?"

"Yeah, thanks Draco." Pansy said, eyeing him strangely. "You know you've been really nice tonight."

"What so I'm usually mean to you?" He asked, faking Malfoy's usual condescending tone.

"Not exactly," Pansy said slowly. "Just a bit sharper. You're weirdly patient today."

"Oh yeah well like I said, good day." Harry said. "But I should really get to bed now. 'Night Pansy."

"Oh okay." Pansy replied wearily. "Goodnight Draco, pleasant dreams."

And with that Harry rushed up to the boy's dormitory. Not having any particular urges to see Draco's naked body, he changed quickly without looking, blushing a lot while doing so. Diving quickly in to bed, his last thoughts before he drifted off to sleep, wondering whether or not Malfoy would be interested in looking at _his _naked body. This just caused a lot more blushing and a strange sense of pride.

….

"Remora." Hermione told the portrait of the fat lady, who was eyeing Harry suspiciously (no doubt having heard some gossip from one of the "sleeping" portraits in Dumbledore's office.)

"Well, I'm quite tired you two," Said Hermione, touching each of their shoulders briefly. "I'm going to head up to bed."

"Yeah I think I'll go too," Ron agreed. "You coming Harry?"

"Oh. Yes. Of course." Draco agreed hurriedly, despite not being particularly tired.

After saying 'night' to Granger more times then was strictly necessary, Draco followed Ron up the stairs to the boy's dormitory. Changing quickly so as not to see anything… _private_ and hopping into Potters bed quickly, Draco vaguely hoped that the strange feelings that happened in his stomach whenever Granger was around would stop soon, because really they would just be a nuisance in lessons.


	3. Welcome and Shunned

**Hi there! Thanks for all the lovely reviews (: feel free to write some more! Enjoy:**

Draco was disappointed to find the strange things that happened in his stomach around Granger did not seem to be relenting. He put this down to Potter's halfbloodness, believing it must be some kind of disease he had gotten from this. Or perhaps Draco himself had developed and allergic reaction to the girl's dirty blood, this wouldn't surprise him, as he had been told all his life that non purebloods went out of their way to make people like himself miserable out of spite and jealousy. Though, admittedly, this conclusion didn't completely make sense since Granger currently thought he was Potter, and since she treated him so fondly, (Draco tried not to gag) why would she bother trying to make him have allergic reactions?

Draco ignored his troubled thoughts, and instead attempted to follow what Professor McGonagall was saying, he was surprised to realise she didn't have the same biasedness for her house that Snape had for his, though he had always viewed her as a formidable woman from a Slytherin point of view, he had thought she must relent in the case of her own house.

"Potter! Are you paying attention back there?" Apparently this wasn't right, he said mumbling a 'yes, Professor' once he realised it was he that she was addressing, this didn't seem to convince her though as she frowned and reprimanded him for daydreaming.

He was rather irked to find that other house leaders didn't treat their students in the way Snape did, he had always believed that was just the way things worked around Hogwarts and was now slightly disappointed to have his views found to be wrong. But, he supposed he wouldn't say no to preferential treatment from Snape, even if it was rather unjust.

Currently, he was sitting in between Granger and Weasly (Potter's usual spot, apparently) and was surprisingly finding himself quite relaxed there, usually when with the Slytherins, he was looked upon as the leader, and had to take charge of a number of students who followed him. Potter on the other hand, lead a very relaxed life apparently, that began at seven am (Draco's began at six), went into a slow moving breakfast with friends, though they tended to discuss the happenings of the daily prophet during this time, not that Draco was particularly interested, then he began Mondays with Transfiguration. Though Draco undoubtedly found this subject boring, (who even needs to change a table in to a pig?) he was glad he wouldn't have to start straight away in a lesson that included Slytherins, as he didn't really feel like having to listen to Potter bother him while he was in his body.

Just as he was brooding on thoughts of trying to argue as Potter when he didn't really believe in anything Potter did, Granger broke into his thoughts with a by tapping him on the should lightly,

"Coming Harry?" She asked, frowning at his thoughtful state.

"Yes. Of course." Draco replied, turning away from her concerned face and hastily packing his things in his bag.

"What do we have now, anyway?" Ron asked, stifling a yawn behind his hand.

"Herbology." Hermione informed him, rolling her eyes at him for not checking his schedule.

"Oh great." Draco moaned, demonstrating his particular dislike for the subject.

"Don't worry. The Hufflepuff's have died down lately." She assured him.

"About what?" Draco asked, confused.

"About you of course." Hermione said, looking at him oddly.

"Oh right." Draco said in reply, ignoring Grangers confused head shaking. He had noticed people whispering about him of course, suspected it too, since he was acting as Potter, but he didn't realise Potter had complained about these incidences to Granger and Weasly, in all honesty he thought Potter enjoyed his fame; he was constantly playing the hero. He guessed Potter was just complaining as a means of boasting and to get more sympathy.

…

Harry meanwhile, had been woken up at six am, and been informed by a confused Goyle that it was time for breakfast. Goyle was confused, mainly Harry guessed, because that was his natural state of being, but also apparently because of Harrys protests to being woken up so early. It seemed the norm was that Malfoy woke up at six am every day, while this displeased Harry who was used to having an extra hour's sleep, he had pretended he had just not gotten enough sleep to placate Goyle (which was true, he thought sadly, due to his helping out Parkinson at late hours of the night) and accepted that he would now be waking up at this time every day.

He had made his way down to the common room to find that Malfoy had quite a devoted following, which served to aggravate him further, as he had never spoken to most of the people in his life and yet they all seemed to look towards him as their leader.

So, grudgingly, Harry lead a group of Slytherins, consisting of Pansy Parkinson, Crabbe, Goyle, Blaise Zabini, Theodore Nott, Millicent Bulstrode, Daphne Greengrass and a group of younger students who Harry didn't know the names of, that followed Malfoy around with the same sort of reverence Collin showed for Harry.

Once the group had been lead Slytherin table by Harry who was surprisingly putting on a good sneer without even having to try, it was apparent they were waiting for him to say something. Harry, racking his brains for what Slytherins talked about, came up with nothing useful, so simply asked,

"Er, what do we have first today?"

Apparently this was a reasonable topic, as the Slytherins launched into discussion and Parkinson told him they in fact had divination with the Ravenclaw's today, which increased his bad mood, and several comments were made about the snootiness of ravenclaws, which Harry found to be rather hypocritical, but forced himself to laugh at anyway.

So, after a delightful breakfast, Harry (once again in the lead, though flanked by Crabbe and Goyle now, who had apparently found no reason to protect him while walking to breakfast) walked to North Tower feeling an ample amount of dread. He was feeling rather disappointed that Malfoy had continued Divination for fifth year like himself, though he supposed this was better than if he had to go to some other random class that he hadn't learnt anything for, and he was pleased at least, that Firenze was teaching this class now for fifth years, rather than Trelawney, despite the fact that he hardly understood a word coming out of the Centaurs mouth.

He had been having wistful daydreams of his normal life with Ron and Hermione, when someone suddenly touch his shoulder to shake him out of his reverie,

"Time for our next lesson." Parkinson informed him, while looking down her nose at some Ravenclaw's who were sitting in front of them innocently.

"Right." Harry agreed, packing away his things, and following Parkinson toward their next lesson.

…

Draco, had most definitely not enjoyed Herbology, not only had he come into contact with Granger more times than he cared to count while they were working on the same plant which caused a strange stirring in his stomach to start, _everyone_ had been talking about him, and despite Weasly and Granger's protests when he declared this, he knew it to be true.

He didn't realise how annoying it would be currently, to be Potter. Of course the whole wizarding world was speculating about his sanity, Draco hadn't of course, knowing full well the Dark Lord had indeed returned the previous year, but thought it funny so encouraged the rumours.

Now he was regretting his past behaviour, because it seemed as if the whole school was against him. Draco was used to getting the cold shoulder of course, he had made many enemies with his snide remarks, but he definitely wasn't used to it on this scale. Every person he passed in the corridor pointed at him, shoved him, taunted him, whispered about him or acknowledged his presence in some other unwelcome way.

It was rather unnerving to be so disliked and shunned. Surprisingly, he clung to Hermione and Ron like lifelines during these times, finally understanding why Potter relied on them so much. It was extremely relieving knowing there were at least two people who trusted him implicitly, and weren't saying horrible things about him.

Draco had never been subject to bullying himself, and found it a rather tiring experience, he wonder if that was how Potter, Granger and Weasly felt whenever he made cruel remarks to them, but decided not to linger on the thoughts.

"Let's just get to potions quickly." Hermione said exasperatedly, glaring at a girl who was pointing wildly in Harry's direction. "We don't need to be late for Snape as well."

Draco gulped at the thought of this, Snape was usually incredibly pleasant to him, but now he was in Harry's body, who knew how he would be treated? For once in his life, Draco was dreading potions.


End file.
